CAVANNA

It was my pleasure to revisit Living Waters Pentecostal Church in Paignton, the fellowship where I came to Christ back in 1988. I was blessed straight away as a number of folks welcomed me before the meeting with the news that they had been healed during my last visit to the church twelve months previously. Most of them had not been able to testify at the time. I had no recollection of praying with these people personally and, as one of them insisted, this was an example of people being healed simply by being present in the meeting. What an encouragement!

In the morning I taught from the Scriptures and planned to minister to the sick in the evening service at 6.00pm. I took around half an hour to speak about the subject of the anointing, and then the power of the Lord began to be at work. Without laying hands on anyone at first, several members of the congregation found that they were being healed in their chairs. First up to testify was Cliff who demonstrated that he could now bend in a way that was not possible before. He was followed by Tina, who shared how her chest pain had mysteriously vanished after ten years, despite it troubling her only moments before in the service. Another man began to twist and bend his body, now free of the previous restriction. Perhaps most precious of all was the healing of an unchurched sixteen year old girl, Lindsay, who was attending for the very first time. Sat on the back row listening to the testimonies, the Holy Spirit suddenly cured a gynaecological problem in her right breast and she was more than happy to come to the platform and tell everyone what had happened. Amazing! (More on Lindsay at the end of this report)

After this, I laid my hands upon a number of folks. A fatigued lady with ME, who fell under the power, and another with cancer. One woman, Natalie, found new freedom to be able to move her right leg and hip. “I’m impressed!” she said, more than a little surprised that she had been healed. A further lady with a thyroid condition also shared how she believed something had happened to her and I felt something was happening to a man as I prayed with his stomach but we could not test it. I can’t wait to hear the news as he goes for an endoscopy. It was an exciting evening. When I arrived home, I found the following message waiting for me from Lisa, a young woman who had been attending the services with her new son Klay. She writes,

“Thank you so much for coming back to see us yesterday! I had a caesarean with Klay and because the doctors ripped through all the wrong muscles they also stitched me up wrong. So I’ve been in a lot of pain for eight months. Since last night I’ve been able to lift Klay up without hurting myself for the first time. I was in floods of tears. So, so happy. Thank you. See you soon!”

At the end of the week, back in Cambridgeshire, I joined the “Fen Folk for Christ” Saturday morning breakfast at Trinity Methodist Church in the town of March. After cereal and toast, the group of about a dozen listened as I shared some of the recent testimonies from around the country. Faithful as ever the Lord began healing some of the people. Testifying first was a lady who found her arm able to raise itself up free of pain, while another bent both arms back without restriction. A young man with a mysterious agony in his foot felt able to share that he was being cured while another more senior gentleman left the room to try out the stairs – normally a problem for him. His face beaming with delight, he told the group that he was able to traverse the stairway without even holding on to the railings for support; quite impossible for him to do normally. I drove back to Cambridge delighted with what the Lord had done for these folks.

A week later I received two exciting updates on the sixteen year old girl, Lindsay, who had attended the healing meeting in Paignton. The church leaders were thrilled to tell me that she had since made a visit to the doctor who confirmed that the problem had gone. Even better news was that she had decided to accept Jesus Christ as her Saviour in the Sunday service. I could not have been more thrilled!

Praise God!

February 2009